Sanchez's marmite vocals - you either love them or hate them...
'A Favour House Atlantic' flirts in the middle ground between an extended single and a cash-in EP, as the title track has already been featured on current album 'In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3', yet in place of b-sides there are three live recordings and two videos.
The single itself is probably one of the weaker offerings I’ve heard from Coheed; it's just a bit too Alien Ant Farm for my liking, and is far less than what they're capable of. The live recordings fair better, with 'Devil In Jersey City'. 'Delirium Trigger' and the excellent 'The Crowing' all demonstrating Coheed's great use of the multi-layered guitar textures of Thursday to create some epic and adventurous songs.
Their songwriting ability is not in doubt; the critical point still is, and always will be, the vocals of one Claudio Sanchez. If you've already heard Coheed then you won’t need me to tell you if you like them or not, but his unique helium-pitched vocals are definitely not to everyone's taste, and for me ruin an otherwise excellent band. Try to imagine a cross between Skunk Anansie's Skin and Glassjaw's Daryl Palumbo, and you'll be halfway there.
The two videos are both for the single, the 'standard' music video shows a self-depreciating humour and a worrying affinity for pimpy clothing, the second is of questionable live footage. The footage itself is fine; just your typical 'band rock in club' action, but I'm not at all convinced that the sound is of a live recording. Despite the fact that it ends with the mandatory crowd cheers and "thank you for coming to the Coheed And Cambria planetarium" farewell, it just sounds way too clean and too exact a copy of the studio version to be completely believable.
There isn't anything new to be found here; no exclusives, b-sides or rarities, and will therefore probably only appeal to hardcore fans and completists.